More than six out of ten charities intend to up their investment in learning technologies over the year ahead, with the focus being on improving learning delivery and its impact rather than simply cutting costs.
 
These are the findings of a benchmark study among more than 80 charities employing over 50,000 staff and volunteers that was undertaken by the Charity Learning Consortium (CLC) in conjunction with elearning analysts Towards Maturity.
 
The survey found that more than two thirds of respondents expected learning technologies to boost staff retention, improve training quality and increase the number of qualified personnel. They also anticipated that such offerings could be used to enhance the induction process, improve administration efficiency and reduce the amount of time that users spent undertaking learning.
 
Martin Baker, the CLC's managing director, said: "We were particularly pleased to see that more than 30% of the charities that took part make elearning available to directors and senior managers. When directors are using learning technologies, the overall impact from elearning investment is significantly higher."
 
This was because leading by example delivered results, he added, although charities should also take the opportunity to learn from each other as well as from practices adopted by both the public and private sector.
 
The three most popular learning technologies for third sector bodies were elearning materials (used by 75% of respondents), followed by web-based resources (65%) and online surveys and questionnaires.
 
The least popular offerings were video, games and virtual worlds, (employed by only 7% of those questioned), blogging and chat (11%) and podcasts (13%).
 
But more than seven out of ten organisations indicated that their internal learning teams were happy to embrace change and adopt new approaches to training. The top four benefits of adopting learning technology were cited to be improvements in flexibility and access to learning, increasing reach and cutting costs.